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Archive for August, 2011

New job, school and apartment... FML

August 26th, 2011 at 07:39 pm

It’s been a while since I’ve been here and that’s because I haven’t been doing well with my finances. It was easier to ignore it. I need to be honest; sometimes it’s just nice to buy whatever you want whenever you want.

So it’s been two weeks since I’ve started my new job and there’s a tough learning curve. I don’t even have words at the moment to talk about the environment.

My living situation is also a mess. So my roommate and I learned that our landlord had to de-lead our apartment earlier in the summer. The house was built a long time ago and he never completed all the state regulated tasks prior to renting it, which included getting all the lead pain out of the house. Now that he’s thinking of selling the place, he’s playing catch up. Therein lies the other issues, I’m dealing with, i.e. I had to find a place to live prior to the whole de-leading fiasco. And since my life just has a way of taking the worst possible scenario, I ended up signing the lease for a place that I have to wait until mid-September to move into. The reason being that my new landlord wanted to rewire the entire apartment after the current tenant vacates. So where am I living you ask? Well in the basement of my old apartment until the de-leading is completed (it takes 2 weeks). Then I move back into my old apartment for a week, then I move to my new apartment. The only positive aspect is that I don’t have to pay either landlord for the time I’m in the basement.

I’m also starting classes next week, while I’m in the basement so that will be interesting.

Ahhh… new job, new apartment, new classes… I have no idea why I put myself in these situations that are so stressful. I’m also going to list my budget below and hide in a corner while you guys critique the hell out of it.

Yes I know I’m paying too much for the gym… yes I’m paying too much rent (actually in the state that I live, that cheap for a 1 bedroom) and my gas is going to be way more expensive than that.

Also I currently have nothing in retirement savings, I plan on getting rid of the music portion, I don’t know what cable or electric bills will be in my place. I’m charging as much as I can on my CC because I have a cash rewards program.

Here is my monthly budget:

Total: $2737
Ideal Percentage/Ideal Amount/Actual Amount

1 Rent-Housing 30% $821 $1250
2 Transportation 15% $410 $30
3 Credit Card1 5% $137 $337
4 Student Loans 10% $274 $274
5 Savings 10% $137 $260
6 Retirement 10% $274 $417
7 Gas bill 8% $219 $169

1Following will be charged on CC: gym ($84), music ($15) will change to $0, cable ($ ), cell phone ($52), electric ($ ), food ($100)